


Soulmate Blues

by Tigerlily26



Series: ReddieWeek2020 [4]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, But like only a little bit, First Kiss, Fluff, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, Getting Together, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Rated T for Trashmouth, ReddieWeek2020, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier is a Mess, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26274205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tigerlily26/pseuds/Tigerlily26
Summary: Prompt for ReddieWeek2020 Day 4- AUOnly a couple of months had passed since Eddie’s 16th birthday, and in turn only a couple of months had passed since he got his soulmark. And as a consequence Richie’s been going out of his mind for the past few months because Eddie won’t tell him what his goddamn soulmark says, no matter how hard he tries.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Richie Tozier & Stanley Uris
Series: ReddieWeek2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904485
Comments: 10
Kudos: 109
Collections: Reddie Week 2020





	Soulmate Blues

Only a couple of months had passed since Eddie’s 16th birthday, and in turn only a couple of months had passed since he got his soulmark. And as a consequence Richie’s been going out of his mind for the past few months because Eddie won’t tell him what his goddamn soulmark says, no matter how hard he tries.

“I’m not going to show you Richie, they’re private,” Eddie would say.

“Awww come on, if you show me yours I’ll show you mine.”

“You don’t even have your soulmark yet so it’s not a fair trade.” This would cause Richie to pout, and in return Eddie would roll his eyes.

Today however it was finally Richie’s 16th birthday, his turn to get his mark, and he was fucking terrified. Not only would these be the words said to him by the one he was destined to spend the rest of his life with, but there was also a chance he could land something super generic, like the ‘Hello’ Mike had inked to his forearm. There was also the topic of Eddie, but he didn’t even want to entertain the idea that he would get that lucky.

Richie lay there in bed unmoving trying to psych himself up. “Okay… you got this! It’s only a permanent magic tattoo that you’ll have for the rest of your life, what’s there to be worried about?” He swung his feet over the side of his bed, pushing himself up he walked until he was in front of his mirror. He took a deep breath and pulled off his shirt, chucking it in the general direction of his hamper. He couldn’t help but let out a startled laugh as he read the words inked into his skin.

“God what the hell?” Above his heart in neat handwriting lay three words. ‘Good morning fucknut.’ Dear god who was his soulmate, and how did he manage to piss them off before they held an actual conversation? He stood there observing his mark for a few more moments before changing into a hopefully clean pair of jeans and pulling on a new shirt. When he deemed the outfit good enough he hurried downstairs.

“Is that you Richie?” Maggie called out as he was on the stairs.

“Yea, I figured I would save you the trouble of dragging me out of bed today,” he responded before walking into the kitchen where she was making breakfast, and where Went sat drinking his coffee from the number one grandma mug Richie had gotten him for Christmas.

“Happy birthday kiddo. How does pancakes with syrup and whip cream sound?” she said over her shoulder, pouring batter into the pan.

“Thanks ma, and pancakes sound perfect.” 

“Happy birthday son, you gonna show us your soulmark?” Went asked, peering at Richie over his mug.

Richie let out a short laugh at his dad’s blunt question. “Right to the point I see, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” Richie walked over to where his dad sat and lifted up his shirt so he could have a look.

“Good god kid,” he said laughing. “What do you think you did to warrant that? Rob them? Insult their family line?”

Richie shrugged and turned so his mom could see. “Honestly, knowing my trashmouth it could be anything.”

‘Goodness Richie,” she said, wincing as she caught sight of the mark. “At least you’ll know who it is when the time comes.”

“Huh I guess that is a bright side, didn’t really think about it like that.” He didn’t really want to think about who might be behind the words at all.

~*~

After polishing off a stack (or two) of pancakes thoroughly doused in syrup and topped with a mountain of whipped cream, Richie hopped on his bike and sped off towards Derry high, wanting to spend every second of his birthday with his friends. 

Upon arrival he quickly chained up his bike to the long rusted bike rack and hurried to the entrance, where he was met with a smiling Bill who had apparently been waiting for him. Bill patted him on the back when he was within range.

“H-happy birthday trashmouth, welcome to the w-wonderful age of 16. How does it f-feel?” he asked as they walked inside, pushing their way into the crowded halls.

“I feel like a whole new man, out with the old in with the new. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure my dad’s getting me a car, no more middle school bike for me,” Richie responded, grinning ear from ear.

“T-that’s great, maybe we can f-finally have our losers r-r-road trip, get in some c-camping.”

“Yea, if I do get a car that’ll be the first thing we all do. No way however am I sharing a tent with you, I get enough of your snoring at sleepovers.” 

Before Bill could continue the conversation someone in the crowd approached them catching his attention. “Oh hey Eddie, what’s up?”

“Eh nothing much,” Eddie responded with a shrug before turning to Richie, a smirk forming on his face before he opened his mouth to direct him. “Good morning fucknut. Happy 16th.”

Richie let out a snort and opened his mouth to throw something back at him, only for the words to register causing him to freeze. The smile fell off of his face and he paled, all he could do was stand there looking slack jawed at Eddie as he gripped tightly to the straps on his bag. His lack of response caused Eddies smirk to twist into a frown.

“Hey are you-,” Eddie started before Richie began talking over him to Bill.

“Uh Bill my first period teacher wanted me to come in early for a make up assignment, so I’m going to head over, like right now.” He barely waited for Bill's confused hesitant nod before he all but ran through the hallway, passing Eddie and pushing through the students in his way until he got to his destination.

He practically burst into the classroom startling the teacher into dropping her book, and nearly knocking over her drink. He mumbled a small sorry before quickly sitting down in the back of the room and trying to let what just happened sink in. 

Eddie has said his words. The first thing Eddie had said to him since he turned 16 was his words. Eddie was his soulmate, his fucking soulmate, his perfect match. Perfect, feisty, cute, adorable Eddie was stuck with him. The friend he’s been in love since he was 11 was his soulmate, and by god Eddie didn’t deserve to be saddled to his sad sack for the rest of his life. What the fuck was he going to do?

~*~

Thankfully Richie didn’t see any of the losers until lunch, giving him time to think and come up with a plan. He was going to avoid talking to Eddie directly at all costs, that way he would never know they were soulmates, it was perfect. As much as Richie hated the idea of never getting to talk to his best friend again, he hated the idea of Eddie being disgusted by his feelings more, and even if he wasn’t disgusted he didn’t want Eddie staying with him out of some sick sense of responsibility. So he did the only thing he could and decided to cut ties.

During lunch avoiding Eddie, the topic of soulmates, and acting normal was easier said than done. After everyone wished him a happy birthday, and he deflected their soulmate questions using Eddie’s long standing excuse of it being a private subject he was practically silent. He only spoke up to start a random conversation every time Eddie tried to engage him. He also earned a few concerned looks from the rest of the losers when he was caught flat out ignoring him. Thankfully Bev gave him an out near the end asking about the final plans for his birthday party that weekend.

“I was thinking you’d all just come over and we’d watch movies, and stuff ourselves full of junk,” Richie said as he rested his chin in his hand.

“I can bring some popcorn,” Eddie spoke up, once again trying to engage Richie.

For a moment he almost opened his mouth to respond, before thinking better of it and just nodding. In an attempt to play it off He turned to Mike. “Hey Micycle, think you can grab some soda for our little swaray?”

“Uh yea sure, I don’t see why not. What kind do you want?” he asked, shooting Eddie a worrying glance.

“Surprise me.”

Soon after that the bell rang. Richie quickly scooped up his bag and slung one of the straps over his shoulder. He turned and gave the table a small salute before heading off into the halls. However the second he got into the halls he was being dragged into the doorway of an emergency exit by Stan.

“What the fuck is up with you today!?” Stan hissed. “And why are you ignoring Eddie?”

“Nothings up with me, and I’m not ignoring Eddie,” He lied. “It’s just I don’t really feel like talking today.”

Stan stared at him. “ **_You_ ** don’t feel like talking?” he clarified.

“Yea,” Richie responded.

Stan stared at him for another moment before letting his arm go. “I don’t believe that for one goddamn second. The world would have to be ending for you to not feel like talking.” All Richie could do was shrug. “Come talk to me when you’re ready to tell me what's going on, or I’ll make you,” finishing Stan turned and merged back into the crowd of students, disappearing down the hall.

The rest of the day was harder than the first half as he shared his remaining classes with the losers, Eddie being in his last one. He tried his hardest to keep conversation with the others as normal as possible, trying to distract them from his obvious discomfort with horribly grotesque jokes. His last period however with Eddie was nearly impossible as with every failed attempt to grab Richie’s attention a horrible dejected look took over Eddie’s face, and it cut straight to his heart. He didn’t want to hurt Eddie, let alone make him sad, but he was doing them both a favor this way. It was better for both of them. He just had to keep telling himself that.

He did end up getting an old beaten up truck from his dad, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t be going on any loser trips anytime soon.

~*~

The next day went in pretty much the same fashion, only by the end day Eddie wasn’t trying to talk to him any more. Richie tried to remind himself that it was for the benefit of Eddie and it was what he wanted, but it still hurt.

That afternoon Richie was very surprised when Eddie actually showed up to the movie night with the popcorn as promised. He even bothered to bring him a present, which Richie silently took and set down on the table with the others. Eventually they all settled down around the TV that played through a double feature of  _ Better off dead _ and  _ One crazy summer. _ But Richie couldn’t bring himself to focus on the movies, normally when they watched movies he sat beside Eddie and they would attempt to whisper jokes and comments about the movie to one another before someone shushed them. Instead he sat painfully quiet through both of them.

The rest of the night passed in a blur of presents and nonsensical chatter, Richie barely paid attention after he had unwrapped Eddie's gift. He hadn’t even looked at him as he unwrapped it, but underneath the colorful striped paper was a single cassette tape, featuring a bunch of random songs he normally listened to with Eddie, one song  _ Eddie my love  _ having been written on the back in red, while the others were in black. He didn’t even realize everyone was leaving until Stan was the only one left.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on yet?” asked with his arms crossed and a scowl of his face.

Richie forced some humor into his practically emotionless voice. “Don’t worry about it, everything's fine.” Maybe if he just kept telling himself that then it would feel like it.

Stan didn’t even bother trying to argue. “You know you’re making Eddie really upset, he thinks he did something to make you upset.”

“Eddie didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Maybe you should tell him that.” With that Stan left shutting the front door behind him. At that moment he decided that it would hurt Eddie less if he avoided them all, instead of just him, so he did.

Richie no longer talked to the losers before class started, he opted for rushing for his things from his locker before going to class early and sitting in the back. He avoided all of their attempts to talk to him, and refused to speak to them in class, he even started eating lunch outside. After about a week it seemed like most of them had gotten the memo, as they all stopped trying to talk to him, and stopped calling, except for Eddie, who even though he made no attempt at school still tried to call him once a night. He gave up asking his mom to make excuses and just let it ring through.

After about three weeks when Richie was going through his locker a note tumbled out.

**I want to talk to you, meet me at the quarry after school.**

**-Stan**

He couldn’t say no to a request like this from Stan the man. 

~*~

After the bell rang he quickly gathered all his stuff and made his way out to his truck. When there he threw his bag in the back seat and drove off in the direction of the quarry. But when he arrived Stan wasn’t there yet so he sat down on a relatively flat rock a little ways from the truck to wait. After a few minutes he heard a voice behind him, it wasn’t Stan.

“Hey Richie… umm thanks for coming, I didn’t think you’d come if I signed. I hope you don’t mind.” He sounded so nervous, all Richie wanted to do was tell him that it was okay, but he couldn’t, so all he did was stare.

Eddie paused for another minute, hoping for a response. When one never came he stepped forward so he was only a few feet away and sighed. “That’s how it’s gonna be? Okay then… that’s fine I just really need you to listen to what I have to say.” He paused to look at Richie for some sort of response, he nodded. “Richie I’m so fucking sorry for whatever I did to make you hate me. Can you please tell me what I did? Because I really want my best friend back, please Richie just... just tell me what I did. Cause what ever I did I’m so fucking sorry.” Richie shook his head, Eddie didn’t do anything wrong.

“Just talk to me Rich, please.” Tears began to form in Eddie’s eyes. Richie’s heart shattered, he needed him to know he didn’t do anything wrong. That Richie was just trying to save him from being stuck with a dirty disgusting soulmate.

“Eddie you didn’t do anything wrong, you could never do any wrong by me, ever,” he said, his tone barely audible. He watched Eddie’s eyes widen in realization, he needed to let Eddie know he had a way out before he said anything else.

“I just thought... I thought that you didn’t deserve to get stuck with a dirty faggot as your soulmate, you didn’t deserve to be chained to me for the rest of your life. It didn’t matter that I knew I could love you right, you would lose so much if you were stuck with me. So I thought that maybe if I just locked myself away from you and the rest of the losers that maybe just maybe, you would have the chance to actually love someone who wasn’t sick in the head like me.” Richie brings his knees to his chest and hugs them tight.

“I’m so fucking sorry Ed’s for making you think you did something wrong. I’m sorry for making you sad, and for making you worry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Richie says, burying his face in his knees to hide his tears, and so he won’t have to see the disgusted look on Eddie’s face. After a moment Richie feels a hand land on his shoulder causing him to flinch, but he doesn’t look up. He hadn’t realized how close Eddie had gotten to him.

“Richie... look at me.” There’s no hate or disgust in his voice, only comfort and sadness, but Richie shakes his head. He doesn’t dare look up.

“You don’t have to stay now that you know you didn’t do anything wrong.” Richie doesn't want him to go, but he needs to give him a way out. A way out of the mess he made, a way out of his life.

Eddie brings one hand to his cheek in an effort to bring his face up. When he looks up, Eddie's eyes are impossibly soft. “Richie it’s okay, you’re okay, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Eddie pulls him into an awkward hug, Richie buries his face into the crook of his neck taking what he can get before it’s gone.

“Rich... were you avoiding talking to me, to all of us because you thought-” he pauses trying to think of the words, “-that I would hate you for loving me and being my soulmate? That we would all hate you?” All Richie can do is let out a choked sob as he pulls Eddie closer and nods into the crook of his neck.

“Why would you think that?” He asks, sounding on the verge of more tears. Richie let’s his grip on Eddie drop slightly.

“It's just you don’t deserve to be stuck with someone so... so wrong as your soulmate. You deserve someone clean and someone you could take home, or someone you could take out on a date... some girl. Instead you got stuck with a loudmouth dirty faggot.” He drops his grip on Eddie a little more, getting ready to leave when the harsh words and the hate comes. But it never does instead Eddie just brings Richie in even closer and talks ever so softly right into his ear.

“Richie... you're okay. You’re not dirty, maybe you are a little loud sometimes, but there’s nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with you. And if there is something wrong with you... then there’s something wrong with me too. Because I don’t want some girl as my soulmate I want you because I’m Gay too. And Rich I could never ever hate you for loving me.” Richie pulls back slightly so that he can look at Eddie's face, a small stream of tears are slowly making their way down each side of his face, and his doe eyes look into Richie's searching for something, anything. Richie brings one of his hands up from Eddie's waist to cup his cheek and wipe away the tears. Eddie slowly brings his hand up to hover over the one on his cheek. Once again he searches Richie's face silently asking if it’s okay, Richie nods and Eddie hand covers his own.

“God Ed’s I don’t know what to say.” Eddie's other hand goes to cup the back of Richie's head and he gently pulls him forward until their foreheads are touching.

“You could start by kissing me.” Once more Richie brings his eyes to scan Eddie's face and is greeted by a small smile and gorgeous brown eyes staring right back.

“Yea.. I guess I could.” Eddie's smile grows unbelievably brighter as he gently cups the sides of Richie’s face and brings their mouths together. Eddie’s lips are smooth and full against Richie’s chapped ones, and yet neither of them care. Richie tilts his head deepening the kiss, and pulling Eddie even closer until he’s sitting in his lap. And it all feels right, like they were made for each other, like everything about them is okay. After what feels like hours Eddie breaks the kiss for air, forehead resting against his soulmate’s. 

“Does this mean you’re done avoiding us?” Eddie asks.

“Yea, I don’t really have a reason to hide any more, so I guess you’re stuck with me.”

“Does this also mean that I get to call you my boyfriend?” He pulls away from Richie, cupping his cheek and looking into his eyes.

Richie laughs, a few stray tears finding their way down his face. “Yes. I’d like that a lot.” He smiles and pulls Eddie in for another kiss. “Does this mean I finally get to see your soulmark?”

Heat flares up Eddie’s cheeks. “Umm… sure I guess, but you have to show me yours first.”

“Done and done.” Richie shuffles Eddie off his lap a bit and pulls up his shirt, revealing the words right above his heart.

Eddie snorts out a small laugh and brings his hand up to gently trace over the words. “Well isn’t this quite the conversation piece?”

“It is, and I blame you. Now show more yours,” he says pulling down his shirt.

Eddie moves to stand up. “Okay but you have to promise you’re not going to fucking laugh.” Richie wants to ask why, but the daggers Eddie shoots at him tells him that that’s probably a bad idea.

“Cross my heart.” Eddie rolls his eyes.

After a moment Eddie sighs as if to say let’s get this over with and turns around.Carefully he lifts up the back of his shirt and nudges his pants down slightly to reveal the words. Richie’s so startled he can’t help but laugh.

Eddie immediately drops his shirt back down. “I thought you said you wouldn’t laugh?”

“Eds, I’m sorry but cut me some slack, your soulmark, that I gave you, is a fucking tramp stamp,” he could barley get though the sentence without bursting into a fit of giggles.

“Fuck you.” Eddie tried to look mad, but the effect was ruined when he yanked Richie up and pulled him into another kiss.

“Hey Eds, I know this might be kind of soon, but I just need to tell you that I love you.”

“I love you to you giant idiot,” he said smiling. “Shall we get out of here, we were all planning on hanging out at the club house.”

“Yea Eds, let’s go and see our friends.” He couldn’t help but smile as they both climbed into his beat truck and pulled away from the quarry.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so like this may be a little bit late, but in my defense it ended up longer than I planned
> 
> Come say hi to me on tumblr [Derpyanimatesstuff](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/derpyanimatesstuff)
> 
> And a extra big thanks for my beta reader [CactiQueen16](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CactiQueen16/pseuds/CactiQueen16)


End file.
